Linda's Southeastern CT Real Estate Blog

ST Joseph Statue Sales Soar in New England!

You may have heard about the custom.  In fact, I'm sure it has been blogged about here on Active Rain more than once. I've blogged about the subject twice on my Eastern CT Real Estate Blog.  Home sellers bury a St. Joseph statue in the yard and the home sells.  Once the home is sold, the sellers unearth the statue and give it a prominent place in their new home.  Over the past couple of years, the market was so hot that invoking St. Joseph was hardly necessary.  Last year, as the market slowed, St. Joseph suddenly made a comeback.  I currently have several sellers in Eastern CT, who have buried the little plastic statues in their front yards following the directions that I supplied.  You can even find little St. Joseph home selling kits online for $9.95.

As a catholic, I can understand the connection between St. Joseph and praying for a home sale.  St. Joseph is the patron saint of homes.  I can't figure out why he needs to be buried upside down but I suspect he does have a sense of humor.  I don't consider it blasphemous or superstitious; I actually do believe it works.  2 million or so St. Joseph statues sell each year and I gather many of them end up buried.  Right after I wrote my first blog on the subject, one of my home sellers gave it a try and their home sold  a week later....to a minister.  I really don't make these things up.   

I googled the topic today and found hundreds of links including one in the Boston Globe.  A local shop owner talks about sales of the statue. "If sales of the beige, 5-inch St. Joseph statues are slow, it means the real estate market is strong. If sales are brisk, the market is weak. Lately, all signs point to a real estate meltdown: He's selling 300 statues a month." 

In the 2003 book by Stephen Binz, Saint Joesph, My Real Estate Agent, there are lots of examples of seemingly miraculous home sales.  One story in the book, which has made the rounds on the Internet, is about a rather impatient seller who buried a St.Joseph statue. "He planted it in the backyard, waited a couple of weeks, but nothing happened.  He planted it in the front yard, waited another couple of weeks, and still nothing happened.  He planted it in front of the yard sign, waited, and still nothing happened.  He then planted it in the side yard, waited and still nothing happened.  This went on for over three months.  His yard was full of holes from planting and replanting St. Joseph.  After three months the seller was frustrated and threw St. Joseph in the trash.  A few days later the frustrated seller opened the newspaper and saw the headline "LOCAL DUMP HAS BEEN SOLD"."

Like I said, St. Joseph has a sense of humor.